5 Indictments filed against 11 youths attacking 2 arab youths

Dozens of Jewish teens were caught on camera outside a Jerusalem mall carrying out a brutal attack on two Arab youths on Holocaust Remembrance Day earlier this month.
Some two weeks ago, indictments were filed against 11 youths, eight of them minors, suspected of having perpetrated the attack in the Pisgat Ze'ev neighborhood. According to the indictment, the boys responded to a message on the ICQ instant messaging internet program calling for "Jewish blood" to "put an end to Arabs running around the Pisga." According to the indictment, the Jewish teens gathered outside the local shopping center armed with knives, sticks and bats and attacked two Arab teens, aged 16 and 18, from the nearby Shuafat refugee camp.

One of the Arab youths, Ahmed Abu Camal, was stabbed in the back, but managed to escape. His friend was described by one of the suspects during questioning as a "trampoline and a punching bag." The suspect recounted how "everyone jumped, kicked and stepped on him."

In the video footage, a group of teens can be seen waiting outside the shopping mall. At around 11 P.M. the two victims can be seen walking past the group. After a short dialogue, the video shows one of the victims being hurled into the street, pushed toward the railing and then viciously attacked.

In his testimony, the victim told police officers that "a group of children, numbering more than 80, pounced on us and they had bats and knives in their hands and they attacked us. All I remember now is that I passed out and woke up in the hospital."

The video shows Abu Camal fleeing the scene chased by a number of Jewish teens. In a recent conversation, he said "when I passed by the entrance there was a large crowd of young men who just stood there while I walked between them on the shoulder of the street. I heard them talking among themselves and they said something like 'are those them? Are they them?' and then someone stuck a knife in my back and knocked me down and continued to beat me. One guy bit my ear. I don't know how I managed to get up, but I got up and ran away."

The video footage shows the Jewish teens fleeing the area after a car passes by. The unconscious Arab teen can be seen left on the side of the road until he is taken away by what appears to be shopping mall security staff.

On Sunday, the Supreme Court decided to release all the suspects that remained in custody to house arrest. Attorney Yehuda Shushan, who represented three of the suspects, said "there is no doubt that this incident must be dealt with from an educational point of view, but at the same time each suspect should be judged according to his individual level of involvement. It is doubtful that those who were present but did nothing should be charged, otherwise 200 indictments should be filed against each child that was at the scene."